Issue Notes

Distributed to newsstands in June 1962. This issue includes 10 pages of paid advertisements.

Distribution date from Joseph Marek's Marvel Comics Group history website. Both the 1962 initial copyright and the 1990 renewal list the publication date as June 5th 1962.Says "August" on the cover, but "September" in the indicia. Based on the copyright dates for Amazing Adult Fantasy #8-14, September is the correct date.

Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider and gains the abilities of a spider. When he fails to stop a burglar who runs past him his uncle his killed as a result. He therefore swears never to shirk his responsibility again.

On a small Mediterranean island of fisherfolk, Old Pedros is the town bell-ringer. One day the volcano atop the island begins to erupt. The villagers evacuate and put out to sea. Old Pedros, though, stays at the church. "The bells must be rung," he tells himself. "Someone will hear. For centuries someone has always heard!" Molten rock streams toward the church. Before it reaches Old Pedros, a ray of sunlight surrounds him. The superstitious villagers swear they saw him ride that ray into the sky. Did their eyes play tricks on them, or did Someone hear the bells?

Indexer Notes

Stan Lee's editorial explains: "We are omitting the word ADULT from our masthead. A number of our teen-age readers have written to say that it makes them feel a bit awkward to buy a magazine which seems to be written exclusively for older readers."

Lee also explained the new feature: "..The SPIDERMAN, who will appear every month in AMAZING. Perhaps, if your letters request it, we will make his stories even longer, or have TWO Spiderman stories per issue."

Based on job numbers researched by Will Murray, the stories that appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #'s-2 were likely prepared for the next issues of Amazing Fantasy. Publisher Martin Goodman cancelled the title before sales figures came in and immediately reinstated Spider-Man in a title of his own when he discovered how well the issue sold.

The discovery of a crashed flying saucer frightens a small town, especially when the townspeople realize that the Martians are among them. A month goes by with the aliens still at large. A man leaves for the city and tells his wife to stay in the house where she is safe. Later that day, though, she has to go to the store for coffee. On her way home she is captured! When her husband gets home and finds her missing, he makes a desperate phone call ... to another Martian, who like him must have four arms.